At a rally in Minneapolis President Donald Trump touted a change in federal policy giving states and cities a level of veto power over refugee resettlement in their jurisdictions. Not surprisingly, given Trump’s polarizing nature, this change was met with no small amount of blowback. “Trump’s executive order requires state and local governments to consent…

There were some fireworks at a meeting of Fargo’s city commission tonight. The genesis for the controversy was an application made by a company called Aldevron for a $4.6 million payment in lieu of tax (or PILOT) subsidy for an expansion they’re building. According to the commission’s posted agenda, the subsidy would have the company…

Recall elections have been in state headlines a lot recently. An effort to recall Fargo City Commissioner Dave Piepkorn has belly flopped, which I’m glad of. Despite the recall committee declaring publicly that they had, or would have, enough signatures to put Piepkorn on the ballot it turns out they couldn’t muster the requisite number.…

According to reports the committee organized to recall Fargo City Commissioner Dave Piepkorn says they have the requisite signatures and will be turning them in some time this week. Which means the recall will happen, assuming all the petitions and signatures are in proper order. This may seem like a local issue which only matters…

Over the weekend there was a claim that petitioners working to recall Fargo City Commissioner Dave Piepkorn were being threatened and harassed to the point where some were calling for the petition drive to be stopped for the sake of safety. Now that claim is being walked back by the petitioners themselves (the recall committee…

I don’t think the people trying to recall Fargo City Commissioner David Piepkorn will ultimately be successful (more on that here) but if they do manage a victory I think the turning point for voters will be Piepkorn’s behavior in office rather than his questions about refugee resettlement. The latter issue was the casus belli for…

There is a hot debate over economic incentives happening down in the Legislature right now, but an even hotter debate has erupted among Fargo city leaders over who should get to say what about that issue. Earlier this month Fargo City Commissioner Tony Gehrig was raked over the coals by critics because he, along with…

One of the tactics of far-left environmental activists has been to target the financing of the fossil fuel industries and their related infrastructure like pipelines. That’s why #NoDAPL protesters have been targeting Wells Fargo bank branches, because the bank is involved in financing the Dakota Access Pipeline, and it is pressure from these activists which…

“Everyone wants to talk about LSS and I’m over here like….city hall just went up 400k and no one knows.” I made this comment in jest on my Facebook page but the more people comment on it, the more I realize how true it is. Don’t get me wrong. Dave Piepkorn has done something I…

Last week Fargo City Commissioner Dave Piepkorn asked for a thorough review of the costs to the City of Fargo from refugee resettlement in that community. Piepkorn estimates the cost to the city is in the millions, but wants a formal review. It didn’t seem like a terribly controversial request to me. Fargo has taken…